Memory
by Initial A
Summary: An old amulet brings back unwanted, buried memories...


**Memory**

**Author: InitialA**

**Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha!**

**Author's Note: This was going to be my entry for week 6's prompt 'tarnished', at Challenge Destiny, but I got carried away with it. Or it ran off at a gallop and I had no choice but to go along with it. Enjoy!**

"We'll need more willow bark after this, but the tea is almost ready, Mama," Chikae poked her head into the room.

Kagome massaged her aching hands, nodding. "Thank you, dear. I'll be done here soon."

"I'll pour you a cup before I leave," the younger woman said, her voice indicating she didn't quite want to leave her aging mother alone.

"That's fine, Chikae. Make sure that husband of yours hasn't burned your house down."

Chikae, the very image of her mother, aside from her golden eyes, pursed her lips; she knew better than to argue with her mother, especially when the arthritis was bothering her and she stubbornly continued with her chores. "I'll make sure Hajime comes tonight, after the farmers come in."

"Alright, sweetheart," Kagome's voice was distracted as she sorted through the chest.

Once she knew her daughter was gone, she sighed in annoyance. Honestly, she wasn't crippled, senile, or inept! She was only in her fifties, for heaven's sake! Even Kaede had been fairly agile until she had passed on, and she'd been in her sixties! '_Honestly, both of them must have gotten that worry-about-the-weak-humans gene from their father…_' she thought, moving another stack of winter clothes and replacing them with the lighter, summer ones.

Her hand brushed something that clinked. She frowned, and brought it out into the light. It was an old, beaten up, beaded necklace. The tarnished silver was wrought into signs for healing, love, and happiness, while the beads were painted a faded blue; the paint had chipped away during the years of storage, showing the dark wood underneath. Kagome's hands trembled at the sight of it, not from the arthritis, but from the memory that surged from where this had come from.

She remembered that night well. InuYasha was due home with Miroku any day now; a particularly troublesome youkai had caused enough damage to a village some _ri_ to the south that their headman offered not only food payments, but tradable and valuable items as well for their assistance. However, when her husband had stumbled into the house, dripping blood and poison, not all the valuables in the world amounted to saving the life of her beloved.

The youkai had had a particular kind of poison, one that affected its youkai opponents more than it's human ones. She hadn't wanted to, but hearing her husband's agonized pleas for death had driven her to the brink. She'd been forced to use her _reikei_ to purify the poison and its effects. InuYasha, however, paid the price: his youki and immortality.

The next morning, as she washed his clothes, she found the necklace tucked in a pocket of his sleeve. She'd asked about it later, when he was awake enough to talk. _"They showed us some of their shit, and I thought you might like it…"_

He'd grumbled about it in embarrassment; she'd gotten most of the story out of him by this point, and it seemed that he thought his wounds to be superficial as usual. The poison was a slow-acting one, and he'd had yet to notice it.

He'd recovered after a time, but his youki never returned. For the first year or so, they didn't notice much of a difference. Hajime and Chikae, still fairly young at the time, had pestered them about why their papa was human all the time now, until one day Chikae announced happily that, "_Papa's hair is white again!_"

She was right. Only it wasn't from the return of his youki, but from age. Kagome speculated that because he'd been several decades old already, his natural age was catching up with him. The decline was gradual, but the next four years were painful to live through. He morphed into an aged man, while Kagome, still in her thirties, watched helplessly and blamed herself. On his deathbed, he'd made her promise to never blame herself for his death. If she'd never cured the poison, he would have died that night, and they wouldn't have had what few years they'd shared together.

Kagome had considered burning the necklace with him on the funeral pyre, but later reconsidered. It was a painful reminder of InuYasha's death, but a necessary one: war, violence, and power all had their consequences. Her beloved husband's death was the result of it, and she vowed to sow as much love, happiness, and health as she could as her penance.

Now, its reemergence twenty years later, she wondered if she'd accomplished her promise. As the village healer, she'd done what she could to save as many lives and prevent as many deaths as she could. She'd raised her children with love and affection, and watched them turn that love and affection on their own families, who would no doubt turn that love to their own families in the years to come. She tried to laugh often, made the rounds to visit with old friends, and led the village children on excursions for ingredients for her medicines and for playtime. Her heart still ached for the time lost with her InuYasha, but she knew they would one day be reunited, and filled herself with that hope.

She smiled, running a finger along the worn metal. Yes, she'd accomplished her promise, as best as she knew how. They lived in a troubled time, one that needed all the joy and affection it could get, and Kagome was leaving her legacy in this small pocket of their world. If one small village could be safe from the sorrows of the outside world thanks to her, it was all she needed.

She felt guilty for her annoyance earlier; her daughter loved her and worried for her, and she was resentful for that. Kagome would visit her later, she decided, to make up for the distant way she'd behaved before. Her hands ached, but Kagome slipped her worn amulet around her neck, tucking it underneath her kosode; her fingers brushed the kotodama she wore always, another reminder to never cause pain or suffering to another.

Her heart was heavy as she went to drink her tea, but the willow bark could only ease so many hurts. '_InuYasha…_'

"Oi!" A crow's-harsh laugh sounded from outside, and Kagome was bombarded with not only her boyish son, but his three children as well, all clamoring for hugs and affection from their grandmother.

She smiled and laughed, obliging their pleas; she tweaked her son's ears for luck, and they twitched obediently as he grinned at her. "You're just in time to help me with dinner," she teased, as the children all sprang into action, looking for cooking implements.

As she got dinner started, making sure no one cut their fingers off, she caught Hajime watching her. The look on his face clearly said he knew what she'd been thinking about when they'd arrived. She smiled back, mouthing '_I'm fine, don't worry_' and knowing he wouldn't listen. He scowled, the picture of his father, but brightened the moment his wife came in with her own additions to dinner.

Kagome laughed. She would be reunited with InuYasha someday. Until then, she would keep her life filled with love and happiness; she knew he would want it that way.

**((Willow bark has similar medicinal properties as Advil. If you boil it into a tea, it's very bitter and actually rather unpleasant to drink, but it helps with aches and fevers. Also, I have a strange relationship with the kotodama. Many of you absolutely hate it (here's looking at you Nikkie XD), but I have a love-hate relationship with it. I don't like what its purpose is, as stated here with causing pain and suffering, but I feel that it is a connection between the two. When the enchantment is removed, I feel he would still wear it, perhaps out of habit or perhaps to signify that he is still bonded to Kagome, just in a different sense. A feudal wedding ring, if you must. It's kind of hard to explain, especially with so many people screaming in hate over it, but that's my two cents and I'll get off my soap box now. =3 Thanks for reading!))**


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